The UC Davis/NINDS/NIMH NeuroMab facility (http://www.neuromab.org) has been established to generate and distribute, at low cost to neuroscientist end users, high-quality, validated mouse monoclonal antibodies against molecular targets found in the nervous system (NeuroMabs). NeuroMabs are suitable for 1) protein localization studies in the adult, developing and pathological nervous system, 2) biochemical analyses of subunit composition and post-translational modifications of native nervous system proteins, and 3) proteomic analyses of native nervous system protein networks.

The NeuroMab facility was funded in mid-July 2005 for a five-year period with the goal of making monoclonal antibodies to 250-500 nervous system proteins. An initial emphasis is on selecting as targets, membrane proteins (receptors/channels/transporters), membrane-associated scaffolds and synaptic proteins, other neuronal signaling molecules, and proteins with established links to disease states. These NeuroMabs will then be produced on a large scale and made available to the neuroscience research community at low cost (http://www.neuromab.org/PriceList1.htm) in the form of tissue culture supernatants, ascites, or purified immunoglobulins. The current NeuroMab catalog contains NeuroMabs against approximately 60 brain targets, many of which are membrane-associated signaling molecules.

The NeuroMab facility is now accepting suggestions for future targets. Through the NeuroMab web site (http://www.neuromab.org/login.php) requesters should supply NeuroMab with a scientific justification as to the biological importance of the target molecule, the importance of these reagents to the national neuroscience community, and the availability and suitability of existing polyclonal and/or monoclonal antibodies. Requesters should also include a list of reagents (synthetic peptides, fusion proteins, full-length cDNAs for transfection in mammalian cells, samples from knockout mice) that could be made available to the NeuroMab staff to facilitate the development and characterization of these NeuroMabs. The NeuroMab advisory board, together with program officials from NINDS and NIMH, will then prioritize your request for inclusion in the NeuroMab queue.

The NeuroMab Facility is also interested in validating and distributing existing monoclonal antibodies to nervous system proteins. If you are interested in contributing your monoclonal antibodies to the NeuroMab Facility, please contact neuromab@ucdavis.edu.

Inquiries

Specific questions about this Notice should be directed to the IC Contacts listed below: